It’s time to begin writing again!
Only eleven days until I leave for my great adventure to SE Asia… specifically, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia!
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Beyond all this is the excitement of retirement!
I began the school year on August 12 with the destination being June 2014. I began the year with only 12 kids and they were great. It was exciting to be back at school and I entered with the idea that everyday would be an exciting day and would also mark many “lasts.” Last first day, last class, last many different things. The “culture” at school seemed so different than it was last year. So many changes, restrictions, rigidity, and testing made school so much less fun. Top down education reforms from the state and nation’s capitals are all about data and no longer child centric. It’s very sad. It’s very frustrating and disturbing to me that I felt my kids were not given any time to be kids. It didn’t take long before I began working on the notion that I wanted to retire at the calendar year’s end. After working with my calculations for several weeks I decided that January 6 would be my last day. This would let me spend nearly a full semester with my kids and by not making it official until that first day back after the holidays it gave me another month of earnings in my DROP (Deferred Retirement Option Plan). Technically my last day was December 20th and that was the way I celebrated the holidays and retirement with the kids.
December 11, the staff at ELES gave me a lovely retirement reception with many, many friends from my years working around the District. It was very fun seeing some people that I haven’t seen in many years. Mom and Linn made the trek and were welcomed by all. Several colleagues put together a nice slide show about my experiences in Osceola. My AP had good fun teasing me by Photoshopping me into Michigan and FSU colors. My Principal shared stories from our first meeting when I was making plans to begin working at ELES. We had some good laughs!
I later shared with my team mates that I was truly honored that they so kindly threw me a great party for my friends and me and we’ve only known each other a year and a half.
ELES is a wonderful school. I am happy that I was able to close my career with such wonderful staff and children.
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Buddy and I have been chatting online pretty much every day since before Christmas about the trip. He has been living in BKK for nearly five years. We worked together and came up with the calendar. It’s great having the luxury of a month so that each excursion outside Bangkok has a few days wrapped around it for some down time. Buddy has spent much time looking at hotels/guest houses. It’s good that he knows some of the hotels from either having stayed there or having seen them. He has also made all the flight bookings to Chiang Mai, Saigon, and Siem Reap. We also have the advantage of a new friend, Ha, who lives in Saigon who will be showing us around. Ha is a friend of my Orlando friend John Boulden. I visited with John last week to hear about his adventures to this part of the world over the past ten years.
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